A reader asks: Why is Linux still not as user friendly as the two other main OSes with all the people developing for Linux? Is it because it is mainly developed by geeks?
My initial feeling when reading this question was that it was kind of a throwaway, kind of a slam in disguise as a genuine question. But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I felt. There truly are a large amount of resources being dedicated to the development of Linux and its operating system halo (DEs, drivers, apps, etc). Some of these resources are from large companies (IBM, Red Hat, Novell). Why isn't Linux more user-friendly? Is this an inherent limitation with open source software?

Some time ago a Windows user friend asked me how to use ITunes(Version 6 i think, or maybe 7) to rip the audio cd that was in his cd-rom drive. Well after having spendt 15 minutes, looking around in the entire interface, I simply had to give up, and said he should use some other software, because I could not find that function in iTunes.

I also tried the windows version of iTunes to see what all the noise is about, and thought that if this is where the "state of the art" for UI design is at, Linux has absolutely nothing to worry about. It was a slow pig with unexciting UI.